Posted By Paul Flannery On February 16, 2010 @ 10:17 pm In General | No Comments

Reports from the New York Daily News[1] and the Herald[2] have the Celtics[3] talking to the Knicks on a deal for guard Nate Robinson[4]. The Celtics reportedly tried to acquire Robinson in January when the offensive-minded guard had fallen out of favor with Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni.

Robinson is in the last year of his contract and he isn’t part of their long-term plans. The Celtics would presumably offer up expiring contracts in exchange.

Acquiring Robinson would be tricky, however, because he is a Base Year Compensation player, or BYC. That which means that his trade value isn’t worth as much as his $4 million contract. Salary cap guru Larry Coon addressed this[5] in a December entry on the New York Times Off the Dribble blog.

The key takeaway:

“Robinson made $2,020,179 last season, and re-signed for $4 million, triggering BYC. This means his outgoing salary for trade purposes is $2,020,179. Since teams can only acquire as much as 125 percent (plus $100,000) of their outgoing salary, the Knicks can accept no more than $2,625,223 in exchange for Robinson.

“The team at the other end of the transaction would use Robinson’s full $4 million salary, rather than his BYC amount. Working the math the other way, this means that another team would have to trade away at least $3.12 million in order to acquire Robinson.”

So yes, it gets a little complicated.

If the Celtics were able to pull this off, they would acquire a scoring threat who is averaging 13.2 points and 3.7 assists in 30 games this season.

[1] the New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2010/02/16/2010-02-16_new_york_knicks_working_on_deal_to_ship_nate_robinson_to_rival_boston_celtics.html?r=sports%2Fbasketball%2Fknicks&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fsports%2Fbasketball%2Fknicks+%28Sports%2FBasketball%2FKnicks%29